European Grocery Retail Reports

Metro Group has posted sales of EUR13.77bn for the second quarter of its business year 2016/17. Its grocery retail and wholesale arm contributed ca. 62% of sales, with Metro Cash & Carry posting a 5.4% sales increase, which was partly offset by a sales decline at Real hypermarkets.

Aldi Nord is taking drastic measures at its Danish operations, with plans to close 32 old and outdated stores. Meanwhile, it has committed to a three-digit million DKK investment in a modernisation programme for 2017/2018.

S Group has started selling Tesco private labels in its Finnish Prisma, S Market, Alepa and online stores. The Finnish grocery leader’s agreement with the international giant allows it to list around 200 SKUs from the Tesco Finest premium label and the Tesco Free From special interest food line.

Rewe Group is making good progress in its endeavour to develop a future-proof supermarket concept, Lebensmittel Zeitung reports. Seven pilots have now been opened under the ‘Rewe 2020’ concept and the retailer is fine tuning the various features.

Drugstores could be the latest European target as Amazon continues to develop its capabilities across new categories. The retailer is planning to introduce a basic assortment of private label lines early next year and looking to partner with established retailers, Lebensmittel Zeitung reports.

Eurospin has its eyes on new markets like Bosnia, Croatia and, in the long term, USA, its CEO Romano Mion told Italian Food magazine. This is because, according to the magazine, Mion sees the national coverage of the Italian hard discounter as close to complete.

In the struggle to save Croatian food production-to-retail conglomerate Agrokor from default, state-commissioned trustee Ante Ramljak presented first restructuring plans to the Croation Council of Ministers. As a first step, Slovenian Mercator will take over Konzum's Bosnian operations.

Tesco is partnering with its suppliers more closely to drive growth through the online channel. Collaboration between the online teams is allowing the retailer to identify new test and learn initiatives and to jointly drive profitability by increasing basket size.

Ukrainian Fozzy Group has launched a new premium supermarket concept under the "Favore" logo, integrated into its Fora neighbourhood store chain. Fozzy already operates several high-end supermarkets under the LeSilpo banner.

The Swiss retailer Coop will open a new store concept at the end of May. The store, which will reportedly be named after Coop’s vegetarian private label line Karma, will be located at the train station in Zug.

Marks & Spencer has reported a difficult year, as it struggled to reverse falling clothing sales and was hit by restructuring costs as part of efforts to simplify its business. Chief Executive Steve Rowe acknowledged a tough environment but said that the company remained “on track”.

Russian X5 Retail Group will organise farmers' markets at its Karusel hypermarkets. Under the patronage of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, customers will be able to choose from locally produced fresh ranges during the time-limited markets

Metro Group’s hypermarket operator Real is considering rolling out instore pick-up stations for online grocery across its German store network, according to Lebensmittel Zeitung. However, a full roll-out of the service will be dependent on shopper acceptance.

Carrefour has made non-food click & collect from its e-commerce website eCarrefour available across all its owned supermarkets across Poland. The service, launched a year and a half ago, was initially offered at a handful of hypermarkets

Tesco is piloting a one-hour grocery delivery service in London with a new Tesco Now mobile app. Shoppers can order up to 20 items and currently delivery by cycle courier is free within the area where the service operates.

On 15 June, Lidl will open its first stores in the USA. The initial batch of outlets will be located on the East Coast, in the states of Virginia, North and South Carolina. At the same time, Lidl will open an online shop for groceries in China.

The Spanish cooperative Eroski has unveiled the latest iteration of its minimarket banner, Rapid. The retailer claims to have the best commercial offering per sq m, with a range of 3,600 products in a 150 sq m sales area.

Amazon is preparing to bring its checkout free Amazon Go grocery stores to Europe, as revealed by the approval of trademarks in the UK. A corresponding application is being reviewed by the European Union’s equivalent agency.

The UK’s largest wholesaler recorded a 15% increase in full-year profits as it prepares for a GBP3.7bn (EUR4.52bn) takeover by Tesco later this year or in early 2018. Revenues to catering and retail clients grew by 6.7%.

Schwarz Group will continue to rely on its bricks and mortar business. Klaus Gehrig, CEO of the leading European grocer, has confirmed the German retailer has shelved plans for a costly e-food concept for Lidl in its home market, but will launch in China shortly, via an online platform.

Coop Danmark is to introduce its combined mobile scanning and payment app, Bip & Betal to all its Fakta discount stores in 2018. Coop Executive Vice President Jan Madsen told the Danish newspaper Finans that its discount banner is the perfect choice for the retailer’s first full-scale roll-out of the service.

The march of the discounters is continuing in Europe: Within three years Aldi is set to become the second largest grocery retailer in Europe according to LZ Retailytics forecasts, leaving behind industry giants Carrefour, Tesco and Metro.

Ukrainian supermarket chain Furshet has announced that it will roll out its new supermarket concept, after successfully testing a pilot store in Kiev. Changes to the concept will include increased fresh ranges and a larger selection of own-produced items, as well as modernised store interiors.

The two Italian retail groups Sisa and Sigma have formed a new buying entity called Distribuzione Italiana. The group’s aim is to achieve better buying conditions from brand manufacturers and realise synergies within marketing, Italian newspaper GDO Week reports.

Lidl ended its 2016 financial year in Spain with sales growth nearing double-digits, the country management has disclosed at a press conference. This follows a record level of investment by the Schwarz Group-owned discounter.

2016 was a good year for Spanish retailer Gadisa, posting robust growth in revenues and a double digit increase in investments. The year was dedicated to opening new stores and recruiting new franchisees, while also expanding existing units.

Bosnian supermarket chain Bingo has increased both revenue and profitability in 2016; while former market leader Konzum has fallen into the red. Through its sustained investment in the local economy, Bingo has earned the reputation of local hero in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

French co-operative Système U is to discontinue its private label economy line Bien Vu (Well Spotted), Editions Dauvers reports. The entry-price products would be replaced with no-brand articles supplied by various manufacturers.

Aldi is reportedly planning to enter the Romanian grocery market. The German hard-discount giant established an office in Bucharest back in 2007, via its Austrian Hofer subsidiary, but until recently had taken no concrete steps to suggest that a market entry was imminent.

Belgian’s Colruyt and Sainsbury’s in the UK are both looking to tap into growing demand for quality food in China. Colruyt has started to test the sale of private labels via Alibaba’s Tmall platform. Sainsbury’s has teamed up to supply a selection of private label lines to Dairy Farm outlets in Hong Kong.

Edeka is to become a member of dairy producer co-operative AMK, Lebensmittel Zeitung reports. According to anonymous sources quoted by LZ, it is understood that Edeka will be anything but a silent member in the co-operative and it is already using the move to put pressure on dairy suppliers.

Aldi is launching an ambitious UK expansion drive to take on the Big Four grocers, according to Chief Executive for the UK and Ireland, Matthew Barnes. He speculated that the discounter could have a store in every UK town and city and in the longer term “for every 25,00 to 30,000 people”.

Ahead of the publication of its 2016 financial results, Spanish cooperative Eroski has given reassurances on its performance and offered a glimpse into its strategy to get back onto a growth trajectory.

Carrefour has introduced its first organic store in Spain – dubbed Carrefour Bio – in Malasaña, one of the trendiest districts in Madrid. Alongside the retailer's eponymous private label line, the store features organic brands.

Aldi Süd is testing Amazon lockers in the car parks of several of its stores around Augsburg. The discounter has said that it is as yet unsure how many lockers will be installed. The news follows reports of Amazon lockers being placed at four Edeka stores in Berlin as a pilot.

Ica Gruppen has disclosed a significant surge in the contribution of grocery e-commerce sales in its Q1 2017 report. Online sales accounted for approximately 2.5% of the total turnover of the ca. 200 connected Ica Gruppen stores in Sweden by the end of the period.

Dutch wholesale market leader Sligro Food Group has announced plans to strategically partner with Heineken Nederland. This will not only include Sligro carrying out Heineken’s logistics operations for the Dutch hospitality sector, but Sligro will also buy other parts of Heineken’s wholesale operations.

Consum, the largest consumer cooperative in Spain in term of members, has published a solid performance for 2016. Both sales and the bottom line increased by double digits, as did investments which were directed toward organic expansion and supply chain improvements.

Rewe Group is asking suppliers for financial support for its ailing Bipa drugstore division in Austria. Following the acceleration of sales decline last year, the German retailer is on a complete realignment course for the banner.

Group Casino’s banner Monoprix is reportedly implementing a self-checkout process leveraging shoppers’ smartphones in Clichy. Internally dubbed “Monop’Go”, the pilot will run for a week and be tested by employees before being rolled out.

Delivered wholesale company Lekkerland has seen sales grow 4.2% to EUR13bn in 2016, Lebensmittel Zeitung reports. In its home market of Germany, sales rose only slightly by 0.7% to EUR7.7bn. Lekkerland’s international operations saw sales increase 9.7% to EUR5.3bn.

The Finnish grocery leader S Group has decided to close its Prisma hypermarkets in Latvia and Lithuania. SOK Consumer Goods Executive Vice President, Jorma Vehviläinen said the market share is not large enough in either country for operations to be profitable and that organic growth would be very challenging going forward.

Amazon Fresh has started in Germany, launching today in parts of Berlin and Potsdam. The service is available to Amazon Prime members, offering 85,000 items and free delivery in two-hour timeslots from 05:00 to 22:00, for orders over EUR40.

German market-leading grocer Edeka has announced a five-year plan to upgrade its Netto Marken-Discount store network. Lebensmittel Zeitung reports that EUR100mn will go into the refurbishment of approximately 500 stores annually, of its total network of 4,170 outlets.

Sainsbury’s pre-tax profits fell by 8.2% last year as price competition and a tough UK market took its toll on results. Like-for-like sales remained negative, although the 0.6% drop compared favourably to a 0.9% fall the previous year. Sainsbury’s acquisition of Argos boosted group sales overall.

As Eroski unveils the latest version of its digital supermarket, the retailer has boasted about its success in transferring the difficult fresh category online. It notes that “over 80% of the orders at Eroski’s online supermarket contain fresh produce” – which is much higher than the sector average.

Denmark’s third largest grocer Dagrofa has decided to admit defeat in the merciless Danish discount channel by discontinuing its Kiwi banner. The retailer has given up hope of turning the smallest discount chain in the country into a profitable operation.

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